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Glossary

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Beneficiaries

Individuals and economic units (i.e., enterprises, households, governments, rest of the world) receiving the benefits to which ecosystem services contribute5.

Benefits

Goods and services that are ultimately used and enjoyed by people4.

Biodiversity

The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems3.

Cultural ecosystem services

The experiential and intangible services related to the perceived or actual qualities of ecosystems whose existence and functioning contributes to a range of cultural benefits4.

Ecosystem

A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit3.

Ecosystem asset (EA)

Contiguous spaces of a specific ecosystem type characterized by a distinct set of biotic (i.e living) and abiotic  (i.e. non-living) components and their interactions4.

Ecosystem accounting area (EAA)

The geographical territory for which an ecosystem account is compiled4.

Ecosystem capacity

The ability of an ecosystem to generate an ecosystem service under current ecosystem condition, management and uses, at the highest yield or use level that does not negatively affect the future supply of the same or other ecosystem services from that ecosystem4.

Ecosystem characteristics

Factors related to the ongoing operation of the ecosystem and its location. The key characteristics of the operation of an ecosystem are its structure, composition, processes and functions. Whereas the key characteristics of the location of an ecosystem are its extent, configuration, landscape forms, and climate and associated seasonal patterns4.

Ecosystem condition

The quality of an ecosystem measured in terms of its abiotic and biotic characteristics4.

Ecosystem final services

Ecosystem services in which the user of the service is an economic unit (i.e. business, government or household)4. They exclude intermediate services which are ecosystem services relating to ecosystem processes. In the SEEA-EA, ecosystem final services are categorised in provisioning, regulating and cultural services.

Ecosystem intermediate services

Ecosystem services in which the user of the ecosystem services is an ecosystem asset and where there is a connection to the supply of final ecosystem services4.

Ecosystem services

The contributions of ecosystems to the benefits that are used in economic and other human activity4.

Ecosystem type (ET)

A distinct set of abiotic and biotic components and their interactions4.

Environmental asset

The naturally occurring living and non-living components of the Earth, together constituting the biophysical environment, which may provide benefits to humanity6.

Provisioning ecosystem services

Ecosystem services representing the contributions to benefits that are extracted or harvested from ecosystems4.

Regulating ecosystem services

Ecosystem services resulting from the ability of ecosystems to regulate biological processes and to influence climate, hydrological and biochemical cycles, and thereby maintain environmental conditions beneficial to individuals and society4. Regulating services are also commonly referred to as “regulation and maintenance services”.

 

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